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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27006037">a tender place (to sink his teeth)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lowlay/pseuds/lowlay'>lowlay</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blood, Blood Drinking, Come Eating, Hand Jobs, Human Lee Jeno, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Mild Smut, Temporary Character Death, Vampire Bites, Vampire Turning, Vampire Zhong Chen Le, Vampires</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:20:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,460</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27006037</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lowlay/pseuds/lowlay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>chenle threaded their fingers, reaching to pull the collar of jeno's shirt away from his neck. "the bite shouldn't hurt." he murmured, lips brushing jeno's skin. he laved his tongue over the artery in jeno's neck and the skin started to tingle where it was wet with his saliva.</p><p>jeno's heart rate picked up and he could feel chenle nosing at his neck, sniffing him. "you smell good," he sighed and then jeno felt chenle's teeth graze his pulse point before sinking into his flesh.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lee Jeno/Zhong Chen Le</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>NCT Spookfest 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a tender place (to sink his teeth)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this wasn’t gonna be porny but here we are, i blame bwa :) over half of this was written in the last 24h despite starting it in july cause i'm insane, no beta</p><p>happy halloween ❤</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>the sky was dark, heavy clouds hung low and pelted the sleeping village with muggy rain. lightning struck, illuminating the cobblestone path. jeno clutched the journal tighter to his chest, glancing behind himself for a split second. he tripped, nearly losing his footing. his heart pounded in his head. he could hear the blood rushing in his ears like the tide. he couldn't tell if he was still being followed or not. he couldn't tell if what he was hearing was another set of feet or if it was just the echo of his own, so he kept running. he didn't know exactly where he was going, but he knew he couldn't keep running forever. his legs felt wobbly and his heart felt like it would beat right out of his chest. he was coming up on the edge of the village where the shops stopped, near where there was a church perched on a low hill. he could hide there.</p><p>jeno adjusted the journal under his arm, taking a sharp turn around the bakery at the end of the road. just behind it was the hill, the church stood tall atop it. the stained glass of the windows seemed to glow with every flash of lightning and the entire church seemed to shake with every resounding clap of thunder. he nearly lost his footing again as the sound shook him. he cursed under his breath, pulling his hood further down his face as he climbed up the hill. the grass was slippery beneath his boots, mud smearing the edges of his cloak where it touched the ground. he took one last step before he was face to face with the white wood door of the church. he glanced behind himself to be safe, unable to see anyone through the torrential downpour. he closed his eyes and breathed a shaky sigh of relief before opening the door and slipping in unnoticed.</p><p>the church was warm inside, making goosebumps rise over jeno’s skin under his soaked clothes. jeno pulled his hood off his head and shook out his wet hair, running a hand through the light strands. he was shaking as he pulled his cloak off and draped the wet cloth over the back of the closest pew. he paced to the back of the church, up to the altar where he gently placed the journal down. he squinted through the darkness at the long table up against the wall behind him to find a candle and some matches, wiping away the raindrops on his glasses with his sleeves. a brief flash of lightning illuminated the table enough to see a small matchbox next to a short candle in a brass candleholder. he struck a match and lit the wick, taking the glowing candle to the altar with the journal so he could read.</p><p>the pages had managed to remain mostly dry despite how soaked through jeno’s clothes had ended up. jeno wiped drops of water from the leather of the front cover and held the candle close enough so the light reached the pages as he opened it. notes were scrawled across the pages in messy doctor's cursive. notes about patients and their conditions, the treatments they were being given, what worked and what didn't. they were dated back years before he had started working at the hospital, even before he was born.</p><p>but that wasn't what jeno stole the journal for. he flipped through it looking almost frantic as he searched for any recent patients who had died, the ones with the same condition. the doctors had no name for it, but it was becoming more and more frequent and increasing mortality rates. it wasn’t even just that the disease was fatal, jeno had a personal vendetta against it. the disease had claimed someone very close to him, someone he loved.</p><p>the ink was smudged, the last several pages had less writing than the older pages. the patient notes were short, detailing all the same symptoms—a ghostly pale complexion, skin cold to the touch, and a sensitivity to sunlight. all the notes mentioned an inability for the patients to be cured or even treated, that nothing the hospital tried had worked for any of the patients. they usually died within a day and carted off to be buried with the rest.</p><p>with the spike in these cases came a spike in corpses being found with all their blood drained. there was a long list of those people on one of the pages along with a note, it said every drained corpse had identical sets of puncture wounds in their necks right along the carotid artery. they looked like snake bites, but the holes were too far apart for any snakes that existed.</p><p>a snap reverberated through the silence, all the candles behind jeno and around the rest of the church sparking and lighting by themselves.</p><p>jeno jumped, slamming the journal shut and pulling it towards his chest protectively. he looked up, heart pounding, to see a dark figure standing several feet away. he couldn't make out their face, but the light was strong enough to show their bright orange hair.</p><p>jeno could feel himself starting to sweat. he swallowed, watching as the figure stepped closer, their face slowly became more and more illuminated by the candlelight as they neared. he backed up until his hip bumped the table. he clenched his hand around the journal and the other into a fist at his side. he had nothing on him to protect himself and he wasn't good at fist fighting so he just had to hope he was wily enough to slip away from the person and out the door before they tried to grab him, or worse.</p><p>jeno could feel his hands shaking, fear coursing through him. he was getting ready to bolt, heart hammering even harder against his chest now, he was finding it hard to breathe, like someone was squeezing the air from his lungs. he took a step forward away from the table as the person's face came into focus and his heart completely stopped. his eyes widened, filing with tears immediately.</p><p>it couldn't be, his eyes were deceiving him. it was the low light, a man who looked similar. he's finally gone mad with grief. he shut his eyes and shook his head hard, hoping the man would be gone when he opened them. this was a dream, this wasn’t real, this <i>couldn’t</i> be real, it was impossible. but when he opened his eyes the man was even closer, his face clearer and there was no doubt in jeno's mind, "chenle?" he called, voice unsteady and shaking.</p><p>a small smile pulled at chenle's lips, giving a short nod of affirmation.</p><p>tears cascaded down jeno's cheeks, wetting his lips. "but you died," his voice broke, shaking his head again. "i watched you die with my own eyes."</p><p>the smile fell from chenle's mouth, "i did die." he stepped closer, letting his fingers graze over the wood of the altar as he walked past it to stand before jeno. "but i am not dead anymore."</p><p>jeno backed up again, "but that is impossible," he whispered.</p><p>chenle just shrugged, as if this wasn’t absolutely insane. as if he hadn't died just three and a half weeks prior. as if jeno hadn't had to stand there helplessly next to chenle's hospital bed and watch the life drain from his eyes. as if he hadn't carried chenle's lifeless body across the room and out the door to pile him on the cart with the rest of the dead from that day. as if he hadn't gone to his funeral and cried his eyes out quietly at his grave.</p><p>"i waited as long as i had to," chenle started, "i would have come sooner, but i could not. i had to wait." he took a step and he was less than a foot away from jeno. his skin was as pale as the day he died and his irises were no longer a warm brown, but a golden yellow. "i wanted to come get you right after i came back, but it was too dangerous. i was too weak, the others would have killed me." he took a deep breath, "jeno, you are not safe here."</p><p>fear flashed hot in jeno again, "wh-what do you mean, 'the others'?"</p><p>chenle reached out and grabbed jeno's empty hand. his skin was icy, just as it had been before he died. "the others like me. they're the ones killing the people in the village. they are draining the people's blood and i am… i am afraid they will do it to you too."</p><p>jeno swallowed hard, this was all very overwhelming he could barely keep his thoughts straight. "so- so if you are like them, do you not do it too?"</p><p>chenle bit his lip, a pearly fang catching on the soft flesh. "only when i have to." at jeno's horrified look, he elaborated. "we do not have to feed as often as the others do, and we can drink from animals to stave off the hunger. that only works for so long, though, unfortunately." the way chenle said drink, as if he were talking about wine from a glass, made jeno's blood run cold. his face paled as he felt chenle's cold hand squeeze his. "i will not hurt you, jeno, i want to make you like me. that is why i came here, if you are like me they will not drain you."</p><p>jeno looked down at their hands. he was afraid. he didn't want to lose chenle again, nor did he want to lose his own life, but he had no real idea the cost of being like chenle. he didn't know how the disease was contracted, he didn't know the symptoms past what he had seen of it from those in the hospital and in the journal. "i do not know…"</p><p>"dying only hurts for a little bit and it's a little disorienting when you first wake up, but you will be okay. i am here, i will help you. i will get you blood to build up your strength and then we can leave. we can go anywhere." chenle tried to reassure jeno.</p><p>jeno really wasn't sure, but leaving was enticing. he hated the village, as much as he liked working at the hospital and saving lives, the lives he couldn't save haunted him and most people that lived in it were entitled assholes. his mother died in childbirth, his father died at sea, he had no siblings, and chenle was supposed to be dead. he had nothing keeping him there. he took a deep, steadying breath, "how does it... work?"</p><p>chenle smiled, "it is simple, really. i drink from you, then you drink from me."</p><p>jeno didn't like the sound of that, but he agreed anyway. "okay," he breathed, nodding.</p><p>chenle threaded their fingers, reaching to pull the collar of jeno's shirt away from his neck. "the bite should not hurt." he murmured, lips brushing jeno's skin. he laved his tongue over the artery in jeno's neck and the skin started to tingle where it was wet with his saliva.</p><p>jeno's heart rate picked up and he could feel chenle nosing at his neck, sniffing him. "you smell good," he sighed and then jeno felt chenle's teeth graze his pulse point before sinking into his flesh.</p><p>it didn't hurt, just like chenle said. jeno could almost feel the flow of blood leaving his body. with the hand not holding his, chenle grabbed his waist, stepping impossibly closer. it didn't take long for him to start feeling woozy, it felt like cotton was filling his head where his brain should be, and with a shaking hand jeno dropped the journal onto the table beside him and grabbed chenle's wrist to steady himself. he couldn't help the whine that escaped him. his eyelids felt heavy and he suddenly felt so tired, he wanted to go to sleep.</p><p>jeno could barely keep his eyes open when chenle wrenched himself away from his neck, licking up the bit of blood that trickled from the punctures.</p><p>"sorry," chenle rasped, licking traces of blood from his lips, "i have not fed in a while, not even on any animals." he reached into his cloak and pulled out a small knife, "now it is your turn."</p><p>jeno watched chenle with hazy eyes as he drew the blade of the knife across the skin of his neck. blood bubbled to the surface, seeping out through the cut. chenle's hand came up to the back of his neck, pulling him close to where he made the cut. jeno attached his mouth there, biting into the skin and drinking down the blood that poured into his mouth from the pressure. it didn't taste anything like human blood, it was sweeter, but with a slight bitter tang to it. it tasted less like copper and more like wine, sweet apple wine with just a dash of cardamom.</p><p>jeno's head buzzed like a hive of bees had taken the place of the cotton in his skull. it didn't dull his senses though, no, it heightened them. he could feel every point of contact with both the table and chenle. the hand tangled in the hair on the back of his head, the other hand still holding his own. he squeezed chenle's hand, drinking down as much of the sweet blood as he could suck from the other's neck.</p><p>chenle moaned softly right against jeno's ear, squeezing his hand back. his other hand trailed down his neck, thumbing at the puncture wounds before trailing further down his body and pressing into his abdomen. jeno's stomach jumped when chenle’s fingers dipped below the waistband of his pants.</p><p>"can i?" asked chenle, warm breath ghosting over jeno's ear, fingers just brushing neatly trimmed hair.</p><p>jeno shivered and pulled his mouth away from chenle's neck, face messy with blood and spit. "yes," he sighed, leaning back in to lap up the blood still leaking from the cut.</p><p>"this," chenle's palm was cold when he wrapped his hand around jeno's cock. jeno full-body shivered, a little gasp of surprise leaving his lips at the stark contrast. "will help the transformation," chenle's hand leached warmth from the heated skin quickly, though, warming up as he stroked him. "be less painful."</p><p>chenle's grip was tight on jeno's cock, twisting his fist with every up-stroke."you will die for several moments," he moaned softly, tilting his head back as jeno continued to lap at the bloodied skin of his neck. "is it alright if i keep touching you when you are dead, or should i stop and wait until you come to?"</p><p>jeno groaned against chenle’s skin, "you can," his breath hitched, "you can keep touching me." he was positively buzzing, senses heightened, pleasure overwhelming. his head felt light, as if it were high in the clouds. chenle circled his thumb around the head, swiping precum down his shaft to ease the slide. jeno choked out a loud moan, the sound echoing throughout the empty church. "<i>ah, ah, chenle,</i>" he called, squeezing his hand.</p><p>"dying will likely still hurt," chenle sighed, digging his thumb into the slit, "but you will feel so much better once you come back."</p><p>jeno was leaking so much, cock wet in chenle's grip, and spitting up precum every few seconds. he moaned, grabbing chenle's wrist with his free hand. his grip was loose, the strength in his body suddenly sapped. he leaned against chenle, the other supporting his weight with ease. his vision was getting spotty, black spots exploding across his vision, growing larger with each passing second.</p><p>chenle was right, it still hurt. it felt as if his muscles were wasting away, aching something fierce. he wanted to cry out, but he couldn't find his voice, vocal cords tender and dried up. his joints were sore, feeling as if the bones were scraping each other with any tiny movement. his mouth was desert dry, breath scorching. it felt like his teeth and nails were trying to retract into his body, trying to bury themselves into his gums and fingers. everything <i>hurt</i>, down to every hair on his body.</p><p>the pain was dulled only a shade by chenle's hand around his cock, but he was grateful for it. his head throbbed, feeling as if his brain was about to burst, gaze significantly darkened until it went out completely. for a moment he could still feel everything, could still sense his surroundings, and then it was all gone like a flash of light.</p><p>when jeno came to he felt cold, the only heat radiated from his groin, where chenle was still touching him. his eyes fluttered open, slowly adjusting. it wasn't as dark as before, he couldn't understand why it was so, he had only been dead a few moments, even though it had felt like an eternity, so it wasn't the sun. his teeth felt like they didn't fit in his mouth anymore, his canines longer than they used to be. his muscles were weak, he could barely hold himself up on his own. it was disorienting.</p><p>jeno leaned into chenle, closing his eyes and breathing in his scent. he smelled good, like sweet apples, it was dizzying. he moaned, pressing his face into chenle's neck. the cut was healed, a faint scar now in it's place and the blood haphazardly wiped away.</p><p>"you smell good." jeno rasped, feeling chenle shudder against him. he licked up the lingering smears of blood—it tasted different now, a little sweeter—eyes rolling back slightly as chenle’s thumb brushed his frenulum. he moaned loudly, he was close, his cock twitching and spitting up more precum. he brushed his lips over chenle's neck, pulling them back as he felt the sudden urge to <i>bite</i>. </p><p>jeno's fangs grazed chenle's neck, his grip tightening around his cock, "<i>jeno,</i>" chenle cried, knees shaking. the sound was intoxicating, making jeno's cock throb. he thrusted into chenle's fist, chasing the pleasure building in his gut.</p><p>chenle panted softly, licking his lips, "you can drink," he sighed, "it is better for your first feeding," he whined, tilting his head back to expose more of his neck, "to drink from our kind."</p><p>and so jeno did, licking a stripe up against where chenle's pulse point should be before sinking his teeth in. chenle moaned, eyes rolling back in his head. "jeno," he breathed, whining in the back of his throat.</p><p>jeno's head buzzed, fingers trembling. he felt drunk, he was so close. it only took a few more thrusts till he was cumming, spilling into chenle's fist and moaning into his neck. he sucked harder, drinking down as much blood as he could.</p><p>"do not drink too much, baby." chenle's voice was weak, strained with effort.</p><p>jeno had to force himself to pull away so he wouldn't completely drain chenle, licking up the blood that dripped from the puncture wounds. "sorry," he nosed under chenle's ear, breathing in his scent.</p><p>chenle shushed jeno, pulling away a bit, dislodging jeno from where he had buried his head. "do not apologize." he shook his head and pulled his hand from jeno’s pants. he brought his hand to his mouth, licking it clean without an ounce of hesitation, cleaning up the sticky white of jeno's cum. "you taste good." his eyes were filled with dark intent, sucking his fingers clean. he broke eye contact and wiped the spit from his hand off onto his cloak and stepped away. "we should go. like now." when he looked back up there wasn't even a hint of the darkness that had been there before. he wiped the cooled spit from the side of his neck on his sleeve, the bitemark now just two little scars.</p><p>"uhm, yeah," jeno nodded in agreement, adjusting his pants, "we should." he reached to touch his neck where chenle had bitten him only to feel scars. he hummed and pushed himself away from the table. "we need to put out all the candles."</p><p>chenle snapped, all the candles going out. he lifted the hood of his cloak and turned around, "we have no more time to waste, we can only travel by night." he paced away from where jeno still stood.</p><p>jeno nodded, following. they had to get out of the village soon, the sun would surely be rising soon. they didn't know exactly where they were going, but they didn't have a lot of time. when they passed the last row of pews jeno grabbed his cloak. it was mostly dry and he slipped it on, pulling his own hood over his head.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i've said this before and i'll say it again, i'm the worst at endings and i'm so fucking sorry</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/nominle">twt</a> <a href="https://curiouscat.me/lowlay">cc</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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